Use * to search for part of a word, for instance ‘bet*’. Entering only * will select all records associated with that search field. You can therefore find all films that have been screened by entering an asterisk in the search field ‘Cinema theatre’. If you enter several different words in a search field at once, you will only search for the exact phrase. Whatever you enter, the search result will only be a list of film titles. With some search fields, an Index button will appear to the right of the field. This button opens a pop-up window with an alphabetical list of all possible values for that field. By clicking on one of these values, that value is entered into the search field for you while you are automatically returned to the search page.

all: search through all fields of the Films collection indiscriminately. Actors for instance are occasionally listed in the ‘Notes’ field. You can only search through this data by using the search field ‘all’.

film title: film title: a film’s title, a variant of that title, a title of a film serial or episode. Always pay special attention to a film title’s spelling. Before 1940, Dutch standard spelling would be De groote misdaad and De twee weezen op de Vischmarkt. You can avoid this problem in part by making use of a *. Titles without a year, with ‘XX’ indicated where the year should be, have not been identified yet. In many cases the Dutch variant of the title is known, but the original title is not. In cases such as these, the Dutch title is used temporarily as that film’s main title.

country: the country of origin (with index). Clicking on a country on the index list will enter the corresponding abbreviation in the search field. You can also enter that country’s abbreviation in the search field yourself directly. The abbreviation for Germany for instance is ‘D’, ‘CH’ stands for Switzerland, and ‘S’ stands for Sweden. The abbreviations correspond with the abbreviations used for car registrations.

category: a group of films (with index). The main categories are fiction, non-fiction and serial.

distribution company: a business that rents out films.

distributor: an individual who rents out films.

city of screening: the city where films have been screened (with index).

cinema theatre: the name of the cinema where films have been screened. Use this search field combined with the search field ‘city of screening’.

censorship rating: the rating of the Netherlands Film Ratings Board (with index). Films were rated from 1928 onwards, and the ratings board determined for which age category a film was permissible or (in some cases) that a film was not acceptable for exhibition at all.

censorship file number: the number of the censorship file. Each film that received a rating was also given a file number. It is good to know that there was a specific system to the file numbers. The files were given numbers in 1928, beginning with 1 (or 00001). In 1932 this was changed to a combination of letters and numbers, beginning with ‘A’ (for instance A0001, A0002, etc.). After the ‘A’, the letter code would be changed each year. After the code ‘Z’ in 1957, the files were given a double letter code, starting with ‘AA’, for instance AA0001, AA0002, etc. You cannot search directly for censorship dates, but by making clever use of the file numbers, you can find which films were rated in a particular year. You can also find all the rated films in a particular year by entering the Browse menu by category 'Year of censorship'.

film ID: the unique identification number (ID) of a film in Cinema Context. You can find a film’s ID in Cinema Context right below the tabs on the details page. You will also see the ID when you transfer a film to ‘my data’. The ID number is listed before the title. A film’s ID begins with an F and is supplemented with a numerical combination.

IMDB ID: a film’s identification number in the Internet Movie Database. Many feature films in Cinema Context include this ID number, but not all films do. You can search for this field, but if you fail to find anything, it is advisable to also search for a word from the title to make sure that the film is not included in the database.

limit search to: serials only / fiction / nonfiction / both: by default, only fiction films are included in the search query. If you only wish to search for serials, you can select that option here. If you wish to search within the category non-fiction, then select that option. You can also choose to search in both categories by checking the option ‘both’.

limit search to: "films made between": you can indicate here within which period you wish to search for films. You can search within the year of a film’s world premiere. To use this option, enter the first and last year of the period. If you are looking for films from a specific year, enter the same year in both fields.

limit search to: "film length between": enter the number of metres if you are searching for films of a specific length.

limit search to: "film shown between": you can use this option to search for films that were screened in a specific period. If you wish to search for films that were screened in a specific year, for instance in 1935, you must enter that year (eg. 1935) in the first field, and the following year (eg. 1936) in the second field. Your search result will yield all films shown in 1935. You can even search by day or by month.